


for your eyes only

by letthecitybreathe



Series: madatobi week 2018 [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, MadaTobi Week 2018, background senju touka/uzumaki mito, like. if you squint, not to steal tags from ao3tagoftheday but., pwp stands for posted without proofreading lads!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 14:12:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15487611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letthecitybreathe/pseuds/letthecitybreathe
Summary: When Tobirama is five, he finds a kunai under Itama’s pillow. Mother frets, and Father is stoic, and Hashirama worries loudly about how Itama could have gotten hurt and howcouldyou, Tobi, you know better than to bring weapons into the nursery.Tobirama stares silently at the kunai, and knows that his soulmate is a shinobi, and that it is all too likely that they are enemies.





	for your eyes only

**Author's Note:**

> soulmate au where you find items your soulmate lost, which was very thoughtfully planned out and NOT impulsively written today because i saw everyone else having fun and decided that I Must Do This Too. so much thought put into this
> 
> now with [this beautiful art](https://dahtwitchi.tumblr.com/post/177446018563/for-glitteratti-because-thank-you-even-if-ive) by dahtwitchi!

When Tobirama is five, he finds a kunai under Itama’s pillow. Mother frets, and Father is stoic, and Hashirama worries loudly about how Itama could have gotten hurt and how _could_ you, Tobi, you know better than to bring weapons into the nursery.

Tobirama stares silently at the kunai, and knows that his soulmate is a shinobi, and that it is all too likely that they are enemies.

 

The existence of soulmates is a scientific truth. There are tomes on the phenomenon in the clan archives, tales of soulmates passed on through word of mouth by clan elders. Both tragic and epic love stories in equal amounts.

Touka has found slips of sealing papers in the drawers of her desk since long before Tobirama decided to take it up, and he knows Mother keeps a box hidden under some loose floorboards for lost items she’s found from her true soulmate, the woman she gave up in order to secure an alliance between the Senju and the Hatake.

Tobirama knows this, knows that one day they will meet so long as death doesn’t meet them first.

That doesn’t mean he has to _like_ it, though. He has no interest in someone finding his lost things, finding possible information that could be used against him and his clan.

But the laws of soulmates and soul bonds don’t care for Tobirama’s wants or needs.

 

Madara finds scattered things, nothing of importance that could lead him in an actual direction. Father believes the superstitions, assumes it means that his link to his soulmate is weak, that Madara will be able to be the perfect heir he hoped for after all.

The first time he hears Father talking to the elders about possible alliances and who to marry Madara off to he spends half an hour staring at the Gunbai Uchiwa, fighting off the urge to throw it so hard down the river it gets swept along with the current and ends up at the feet of his soulmate.

(In this scenario, they aren’t at war with nearly every surrounding clan and possible soulmate. In this scenario, Madara’s still the middle child instead of the heir. There are a lot of differences.

He leaves the gunbai where it is and trains until he can no longer stand.)

 

It’s two weeks after the…confrontation at the river, and Hashirama’s eyes still slide over Tobirama when they’re in the same room.

Tobirama tries not to think too much about it. He has training, after all, and the Uzushio delegation is arriving soon. There’s too much going on for him to focus on that, and he knows he doesn’t have time for weakness. They’re a clan at war, and as much as it hurts to not be the first one his brother looks to, it’s…fine. He will adjust.

He isn’t thinking about what happened at the river or Hashirama when he manages to trip over a _rock_ while carrying the few scrolls on sealing the Senju have. All he’s thinking about is learning as much as he can before the Uzushio delegation arrives so he can ask some coherent questions about sealing and learn _something_ useful, something that can help his clan in this endless, bloody war. Something that will keep his last brother safe, because for all that Hashirama is older Tobirama is the protector, and he won’t lose another brother. He _won’t_.

The rock is smooth, upon further inspection. Round and flat, just an ordinary river rock with the word ‘ _run_ ’ carved into one side.

He leaves it tucked into the drawer of his desk and promptly forgets about it, lets himself get absorbed into the scrolls he’s found instead. Wherever the rock came from, it can’t be too important.

 

For eighteen years, Madara finds nothing of importance.

That’s not to say he finds _nothing_ , because there are plenty of things to find. He finds kunai and whetstones, senbon and shuriken and spools of ninja wire. One morning after sleeping with the window open he finds his room filled with small, blank slips of paper, the perfect size for drawing explosive seals on.

On his nineteenth birthday, Madara finds a sheet of notes, the majority of which have been blotted out.

At the bottom, it reads, ‘ _Tests failed. Jutsu incomplete and impossible to perfect. Will not pursue further.’_

At the top, it reads, ‘ _Edo Tensei._ ’

Madara burns the note, and for the first time he wonders if he will truly love his soulmate.

 

Peace comes in a rush, or at least it seems to in Tobirama’s eyes.

Izuna gets wounded. Madara rages. Hashirama bulldozes his way into Uchiha clan territory and heals Izuna. Tobirama picks up the pieces and manages to get his clan head out of enemy territory without winding up dead and somehow secures a peace treaty.

After that, the village isn’t too far behind.

And after the village comes the paperwork, which all ends up on _Tobirama’s_ desk.

“Uchiha,” Tobirama says, using all his strength to not glower down at Madara. “Care to explain what your unfinished paperwork was doing on my desk?”

“ _Excuse_ me?” Madara says, doing no effort to be civil. Tobirama can see his hair starting to bristle even more than usual. “I’ve already _finished_ everything I’ve had to do this week. I’m just helping your _oaf of a brother_ finish _his_ paperwork.”

(Part of Tobirama wonders how Madara uses that many italics in just three sentences. Surely that isn’t normal or healthy.)

“Really,” Tobirama says, dry as dust. “Here’s the form for jonin sensei assignment. Here’s the form for designating land for training grounds. And this is the form for the Uchiha clan census, which isn’t even one I could fill out for you, since it seems you’ve forgotten.”

Rather than sheepishly admit to trying to pawn off his work on Tobirama, or even try to burn something to cause a distraction, Madara just buckles down on his position, with his arms crossed like a petulant child.

“I have _already finished those forms_ ,” Madara repeats, his verbal italics button seemingly still pressed down. “I had to get new copies of them because I misplaced the originals, someone probably just left them on your desk since you’re a paperwork _freak_ and –would you stop _looking_ at me like that.”

“You misplaced them,” Tobirama chokes out, only distantly aware of what he’s saying because there is no way that Madara Uchiha of all people is his _soulmate_.

The blood drains completely from Madara’s face, and half a second later Tobirama’s hurrying out the door. Not running, because he has dignity, but – speed walking, maybe. Just a little bit.

It’s not that Tobirama is opposed, really. Madara is attractive enough, and even if there’s no true love between them it could work. The Uchiha clan head marrying the Senju clan head’s younger brother would be a strong show of their alliance, and that alone is reason enough to accept it, but.

But.

Madara’s never really taken to Tobirama after Izuna got wounded. He spends time with Hashirama, spends time with Touka due to his friendship with Mito. It’s not that he has a problem with the Senju so much as he has a problem with Tobirama, despite the fact that Izuna was willing to move past it.

Tobirama can’t afford to have someone like Madara Uchiha finding his lost things. He knows Madara, knows he’s fully capable of holding a grudge for a lifetime and more when he puts his mind to it. For all of Tobirama’s care, there’s no way he hasn’t lost something incriminating at some point in time.

He belatedly realizes he left his work back at the Hokage tower, and there’s no way he can just go back without facing Madara. He goes to one of the newly finished training grounds instead to see if he can get a breakthrough on one of the new jutsu he’s working on.

 

When he gets into the office the next day, his desk is covered in small slips of paper, and Madara Uchiha is sitting smugly at his own desk.

It takes a second to calm his temper, a deep breath and counting to three in his head, a reminder of how much this peace means to his brother, and then Tobirama gathers the papers off of his chair so he can sit down.

It isn’t too long until he recognizes the papers, though. It’s the exact same paper that Touka had gotten him as a gift from Uzushio when she was visiting Mito.

The paper he had thought was gone for _years_ , after Touka had returned from Uzushio and tried a particularly destructive fuuton jutsu before Tobirama had time to put them away.

“Are you a child?” he asks, because there’s no other explanation for this. Also, Tobirama didn’t want Madara thinking he was touched because Madara actually kept the paper, because he was not.

“Am _I_ a child?” Madara asks, as if half his personality isn’t petulant child. “You’re the one who ran away because you’re scared of soulmates!”

“I’m not _scared_ –“ he starts, before sharply cutting himself off. “Did you need to cover my desk in paper?”

Madara snorts, and when Tobirama looks up he sees that Madara doesn’t even have the decency to look up from his paperwork. “Did you need to cover every inch of my room with them?”

“I don’t decide where my lost things end up,” Tobirama replies stiffly, and finally gets to work on clearing the paper from his desk.

There’s another snort from Madara’s side of the room, but Tobirama doesn’t have time to sort out what possible emotion it’s supposed to convey. He has actual work to do, and an idiot covered his desk in paper.

If it didn’t mean destroying the fragile peace his brother had managed to piece together, Madara would be a dead man now.

There’s a few minutes of blessed silence, only disrupted by the rustling of Tobirama cleaning his desk and Madara occasionally flipping a page, and Tobirama revels in it. He’d expected endless teasing, or shouting, or an uncomfortable and stifling silence. Half of him thought Madara wouldn’t even show up today, so determined to avoid Tobirama that he’d shirk his duty.

Of course, Madara couldn’t just let there be silence, because he seems to be making it his personal mission to drive Tobirama insane.

“So,” he says casually, as if everything’s completely normal, as if they’re _friends_. “Are you done freaking out about this now?”

“Am I done freaking out about _what_?” Tobirama snaps, and he thinks his irritability can be forgiven for today. He was perfectly willing to pretend that none of this soulmate business had ever happened for the sake of professionality.

“This whole…soulmate thing,” Madara says, waving one hand ridiculously through the air, as if that makes his point any clearer.

Tobirama pauses for a second, takes a deep breath before straightening out the final pile of papers and tucking them into his drawer. “I don’t know what you mean,” he says coolly, “but if you’re done, I have work to do.”

“I’m not some fucking child, Senju,” Madara spits back, all fire and rage. “If you’re so repulsed by the idea of us being soulmates then you could just _say so_.”

“If _I’m_ repulsed by it?” he shoots back, and arguing with someone shouldn’t feel so fulfilling, surely. “You’re the one who can’t seem to let go of what happened when our clans were at war with each other! Don’t act as if you aren’t opposed.”

“You are so _dense_ ,” Madara says, and then suddenly he’s on Tobirama’s side of the office, faster than Tobirama was anticipating in an office of all places.

And then Tobirama forgets how to think, because Madara is _kissing_ him.

“Literally the dumbest person on earth,” he says, because Madara just doesn’t know how to not be an asshole.

So, logically, Tobirama grabs a fistful of Madara’s hair and pulls him in for another kiss. Just to shut him up.

He’s nearly positive this will end with half the village on fire.

**Author's Note:**

> [the entire time i was writing the scene where tobirama finds the rock i was thinking about this video you're welcome](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2FiBAeTZls)
> 
>  
> 
> ANYWAY!! im on tumblr as [glitteratti](http://glitteratti.tumblr.com/)! come say hi. SORRY if this is very heavily tobirama centric. im only here for him babey! p.v. have i MENTIONED the [beautiful art dahtwitchi drew for this. it's right here and its AMAZING](https://dahtwitchi.tumblr.com/post/177446018563/for-glitteratti-because-thank-you-even-if-ive)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [lost and (un)found](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16053845) by [godaime_obito](https://archiveofourown.org/users/godaime_obito/pseuds/godaime_obito)




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